Twenty-six brands, one event: Delivery Hero’s 2019 Brand Meetup

In late November over 40 members of our global brand teams landed in Berlin to join our Delivery Hero Brand Meetup – an annual event to share ideas, achievements and inspirations – from successfully rolling out a 360 rebrand to YouTube Bumper best practices.

We took the opportunity to catch up with a few of our Heroes about why they love what they do, the importance of coming together as a business and the highlights of their year.

Ellie Kouremenou, Community Manager, efood

Ellie Kouremenou, Community Manager, efood

efood’s Ellie Kouremenou is as well known at Delivery Hero for her bright and bubbly personality as she is for her insightful and effective content. As community manager and social content producer at efood in Greece, Ellie has been at the centre of many of the brand’s incredible social campaigns.

What’s the best part of your job?

The team I work with. I really like everyone I work with and how nice they are. What makes it so special is that everyone is always willing to help out and they come to work every day with a positive attitude.

What do you find most beneficial about the Brand Meetup?

Meeting everyone face-to-face and learning about what all of Delivery Hero’s different brands are doing. I think it’s especially good to gain a more holistic view of the Delivery Hero business and how we are solving problems all over the world.

What was your highlight for efood in 2019?

Well, it would be hard not to mention our 1+1 campaign. We developed a concept around ‘buy one get one free’ in selected restaurants across Greece. It was one of our most successful campaigns and the whole team worked really hard to bring it to life. My personal favourite is Love Delivered. It’s a new initiative where customers can donate 20-cents at the end of their order to the charity Together For Children.

Soyoung Kim, Marketing Manager, Yogiyo

To say South Korea is different to Berlin might be an understatement. Yogiyo’s Soyoung Kim could attest to this, as she left the land of K-Pop, fried chicken and mukbangs to attend our annual get-together.

What’s the best part of your job?

For me, it is all about the customer. At Yogiyo, we have built our entire brand around the customer and we are now starting to see great results from this ongoing obsession.

Why did you enjoy visiting the Berlin office for the Brand Meetup?

This is my first visit here, so it has been amazing to learn about everything the Delivery Hero brands have done in the last 12 months and also, what we can do together in the future. I was able to learn so much from the other brands as we shared different ideas and approaches during the workshops.

What is your highlight for Yogiyo in 2019?

Yogiyo’s brand awareness is at almost 100% in South Korea, so this year we had an ambitious Top of Mind target, which we exceeded. I think this is an amazing result.

Muhannad Farrash, Head of Marketing, HungerStation KSA

Leaving the warm weather of Saudi Arabia for the cold of Berlin, HungerStation’s Head of Marketing Muhannad Farrash brings an enthusiasm for creativity everywhere he goes. We managed to bottle some of this energy for a quick interview.

What is the best part of your job?

The creativity. I love that every day I have an opportunity to go crazy, test new things and deliver creative campaigns for our brand. At HungerStation, we show a lot of pride in our work, especially when the results exceed our own expectations.

Why do you think the Brand Meetup is so important?

This was my first Brand Meetup and it’s been great putting a face to the names we work with almost everyday. I think it allows us to communicate better. Emails and other technology are great but it’s not the same as speaking face-to-face. In my mind, this is a more human way to work. Beyond that, it’s great to experience new cultures, new ideas and new ways of thinking.

What was the biggest highlight for HungerStation in 2019?

We are getting more orders than ever, so that is a big highlight for our team. I think from my perspective, this year has been about learning and adapting. Learn, adapt and evolve was our motto as we transitioned to a more data-driven approach.

Oliver Irvine, Head of Content, foodpanda APAC

Oliver Irvine’s journey is an interesting one. Cutting his teeth at some of Thailand’s largest publications, Oliver’s editorial experience is proving an advantage in the fast-paced delivery markets of APAC.

What is the best part of your job?

The people for sure. We’ve created something amazing at APAC HQ. We have a content creator from every country we operate in; that’s 11 nationalities and even more languages. If I had to pin it down to one word it would be diversity. Diversity of people, ideas, projects and challenges.

What did you find most valuable at the 2019 Brand Meetup?

The Brand Meetup itself is so valuable. As a global company, there are so many people I am working with everyday, that I haven’t met.

The entire event was also very well-structured. It was not like any other conference I’ve been to. There was a great balance between sharing ideas, learning about new approaches and then putting these pieces into practice. There is a real tangibility to the Brand Meetup. It’s about actually creating things that we can take back with us and implement.

What was your highlight for foodpanda in 2019?

The launch of a new country, Laos. It really showed me just how fast the team and Delivery Hero can move. We had decided to launch and in a very short time frame and in a matter of weeks we had a team on the ground, the app was ready, we were creating content, we had riders and we were delivering orders.

By the time this article is published, we will have launched two more countries. We’ll have gone from eight countries to 11 in less than a quarter. That also means three more nationalities will be joining the content team in 2020.

Nicolas Serna Castro, Brand Manager, PedidosYa

As PedidosYa continues to set the pace for the delivery market in Latin America, its marketing and communication efforts need to match it. This has been the job of Nicolas Castro Serne and his team at PedidosYa, with the brand breaking into new markets and expanding its offering to new verticals.

What is the best part of your job?

Doing different things differently, every day. This is what keeps my job so interesting. We always have to be creative with how we approach new challenges and tasks as no two days are the same.

What do you value most about the central team and events like the Brand Meetup?

It’s important to have a team that can see the whole picture. We are a big business operating different brands in different countries with different cultures. Having one central team that knows all the things that are happening gives us access to ideas from all over the world, which is priceless.

In this industry, we are often faced with business problems which require a fast response. Having an understanding of what another country or market did and how they approached it, or the lessons they learnt, can mean we are lightyears ahead of the competition.

What is your highlight for PedidosYa in 2019?

Our rebranding. We are doing things very differently and so it is an exciting time to be a part of PedidosYa.

Now that our identity is aligned we can start to leverage consistencies across all our markets and push our creativity under a unified brand strategy at PedidosYa.

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As we interviewed each Hero about their thoughts on the event and 2019, the themes of creativity, collaboration, innovation and agility came up again and again. As all our teams push for better outcomes, these ingredients are more important than ever to deliver stronger, bolder and smarter solutions.

In the words of PedidosYa’s Nicolas, “the only bad thing about the Brand Meetup is it’s only once a year! I wish it could be more often because it gives us a real advantage.”